Lyric Poem · War & Remembrance

Dulce et Decorum Est

by Wilfred Owen · 1920

Reading room

1Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

2Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

3Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

4And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

5Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

6But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

7Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

8Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

9Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

10Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

11But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

12And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.—

13Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,

14As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

15In all my dreams before my helpless sight

16He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

17If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

18Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

19And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

20His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,

21If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

22Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

23Bitter as the cud

24Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

25My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

26To children ardent for some desperate glory,

27The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

28Pro patria mori.

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“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen — quilloak.com/poems/dulce-et-decorum-est

Quick facts

Poem: Dulce et Decorum Est
Poet: Wilfred Owen
Published: 1920
Length: 28 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: War & Remembrance, Death & Loss

Craft notes

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Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 28 lines · 4 stanzas of 2–12 lines
Line length: Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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Text, source & rights

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Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Wilfred Owen1893–1918
Source record: WikisourceDulce et Decorum Est by wilfred-owen, Wikisource transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: 1920
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 48a56052f1c9b59c…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem War & Remembrance Death & Loss

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